Otto Kerner Jr. Quotes
An intelligence unit staffed with full-time personnel should be established to gather, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate information on potential as well as actual civil disorders...It should use undercover police personnel and informants.
Otto Kerner Jr., 1908–1976, Governor of Illinois (Democrat), Chairman, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, Report, Chairman, National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, February 29, 1968
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
After the report was produced someone had handwritten “Draft” on it. The technique of using government agents to spread disinformation to Americans has always been very controversial. The NYPD claims that despite this report, it is the policy of the department not to allow officers to disseminate disinformation. See {589484}. He did not say that civilian agents or paid informants did not do it for the department.
This general perception led the Founding Fathers to place profound restrictions on the allowable role of the military in national law enforcement—a condition that exists to this day.
In earlier years it was common practice to use undercover agents to hand out disinformation pamphlets and false rumors to confuse and diffuse crowds gathering for demonstrations. The policy was abandoned. In 2006 a September 11 report surfaced {589485} where the practice had been recommended to be resurrected. The official spokesman denied that it had, but worded the denial in a way that led many to believe that the practice had been resumed. Note that he did not say that non-police officers did not do this for the police department. That left the door open for non police officer agents of the department to spread disinformation at the behest of the police department. It employed thousands of civilian, non officer personnel, and always had many paid informants and agents.
Hirsh had uncovered CIA illegal surveillance of anti Vietnam war protesters in the late 1960s. They broke two sets of laws. First, the CIA had no authority to investigate and track American Citizens anywhere but particularly American citizens. Second, the FBI which did have the authority to investigate Americans, were not allowed to use the methods that the CIA did. They violated not only Federal Law and Rules, but also violated the 4th Amendment Rights of thousands of citizens.
There were not only no convictions as a result of this ethnic profiling and warrantless surveillance but there was not even a single lead generated. See {637048}.
Otto Kerner Jr. was an American jurist and politician who served as the 33rd Governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 and a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. As a federal judge, he chaired the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission), but was forced to step down from the bench after being convicted of mail fraud.
